YOUR CONSUMER QUERIES:MYRA TYRELL writes to warn readers about buying VHI Multitrip Insurance.
“I purchased it in January of this year and paid €64.75.
“Then in April I was due to renew my VHI health insurance but I decided not to because of the continuing increases in premiums.
“When I did this I got a call from VHI to tell me that my 12-month Multitrip travel insurance would be cancelled too with no refund.
“It is in the small print that they can do this so I have no comeback. Buyer beware.”
Rip-off on Prosecco
PRICEWATCH IS quite partial to the odd glass of Prosecco as is Ciaran McArdle. He is incensed by the price of the sparkling Italian wine, however. "Over the past number of years we have been subject to a blatant rip-off regarding the price charged for a glass of Prosecco", he writes, and this has been perpetrated on the consumer by "most establishments in the hospitality business".
"This is achieved by the deceitful practice of placing Prosecco on the Champagne section of their menus and subjecting the consumer to the upmarket price range of between €8 to €10 per glass, for what is in reality a sparkling Italian wine with no connections to the Champagne progeny other than its sparkling characteristic," he continues.
He says "further injury" is heaped upon our shoulders by the practice of serving it in a champagne flute glass which equates in volume to about three-quarters of a standard glass of wine. "Taking a price charged of €8.50 for a glass of Prosecco with 25 per cent less volume, this equates to a price of €11 a glass for the equivalent normal acceptable white/red house wine costing €5.50 to €6.00 a glass. The result is the consumer is paying for a glass of Prosecco double the price of a glass of standard wine."
He accepts that some establishments do have a 200ml snipe of Prosecco for around €7 – he identifies the Wishing Well in Blackrock. "The licenced vintners, hotel federation and restaurant association should be taken on over this exploitation and excessive profit taking," he says.
The excuse that they are providing exclusive high standard Prosecco does not stand up any more as the popularity of Prosecco over the past few years has brought the retail price per bottle down to a price ranging from €9 to €14 (and even lower in some off-licences) per 750ml bottle.
X-rays cost €175
LAST WEEK we featured an item about a reader who was charged hundreds of euro by a consultant in order to issue a medical report for an insurance claim.
It prompted Elizabeth Flynn to contact us. Her son was knocked from his bicycle and suffered a broken vertebrae.
When her solicitor requested a medical report from the orthopaedic surgeon she was charged €400 and €175 for X-rays which were provided on CD.
"I suppose the solicitor would have paid eventually if I had not done it. My son is a school child with no income. The cheque was to be made out to the surgeon. Sigh!"
Sigh indeed.
Why do airlines still have gender issues?
EITHNE BOYD recently booked a holiday package by phone and was asked if she was a Miss, a Ms or a Mrs. She didn't want to give this information away as she regards it as irrelevant and old fashioned. "The travel agent said they didn't mind," she writes, "but the airline insisted on it in order to know what gender I am. The booking agent didn't know herself why. Have you any idea why on earth they need to know that in advance? If I turn up with photo ID that matches in name and face to the person standing in front of them, surely that's what's important. I hope you can help."
We contacted Aer Lingus to find out why airlines want this information. A spokesman said that it only asks about a person's gender on flights to the US as the authorities there insist on it. It does ask for honorifics for two reasons, one which is historical and the other which is to do with customer preferences. Traditionally, it used to ask for the Mr, Miss, Mrs, Ms or Dr for weight and balance reasons. The spokesman said that such crude measures had long been dispensed with but the airline still asks for a person's title because customer feedback suggests that people want to be addressed by a Mr, Miss, Ms or Dr.
Bravo BOI
BANK OF Ireland has finally entered the smartphone era with the arrival of its first mobile banking app which was made available to iPhone users last week. The bank promises its new app is "destined to deliver high speed, secure bank account access, to the 500,000 personal customers currently registered for online banking". Users can view balances and review transactions, pay bills and transfer money and find their nearest ATM. We've used it and it works. About time!
